The Arizona sentinel., 1887-03-05
THE RACE FOR WEALTH.
Some of the Incentives to and Conse-
 quences of Mammon Worship.

greater than it is in any other country in proportion to population. There are two good reasons why this should be so. One is that it is virgin coun- try possessed of great natural riches and affords every man an opportunity to get ahead, and the other is that it is inhabited by men of unequaled energy and shrewdness who know how to make the best use of their advantages. If this condition of prosperity were at tended by some principle which would effectually operate to check the desire for inordinate wealth, the American Nation would be the best substitute the world affords for that blessed commu- nifty which was the dream of Sir Thom- as More. But there is no such principle operative on aNy scale wide enough to produce the desired effect. The love of money is the root of an evil that can not be extirpated without making some radical changes in the constitution of human nature. The man who has his S100,000 of capital will strive to make it $500, 900, and when he reaches that | point in nineteen cases out of twenty he is just as anxious to raise it to $1,- OOO GOO as he was in the beginning to accumulate S1OO.O0O.
 | The millionaire is the natural prod uct of the man and his opportunities. There are instances of successful men with philosophy enough to ''shut down on themselves when they have acquired competency" but the in- stances are very few. The protest which the circumstances of the time compel the public censor to make is not so much against the millionaires as against the spirit which the con- test for wealth has engendered and the evils that are begotten of the strife. There is not the least objection to the accumulation of large fortunes so long as the rules of honesty and fair play are observed. It is because of the de- moralizatiOn produced by the innumer- able departures from those rules that the press and the pulpit are to-day ut tering Tn concert their reproaches and warnings.
 It would not be impossible to find in the history of mankind chapter more disfgured by the calamities which mammon worship entails than the chapter which records the career of Americans who have sought to get rich by "short cuts'' since the close of the civil war. The strain of this ambition has wrecked families, polluted the sources of justice, corrupted Legisla- lures, turned away the currents of trade, blighted once unsullied reputa- tions, and produced more crime and misery than any other influence, with the single exception of the thirst for strong drink. It is the acute mania of American society. The roots of the evil can be traced down into the very soil of the fam fly circle. It begins with the infiu- ences that revolve around a mans own fireside. By those influences the wife is transformed into a conspirator against her husband. The rivalries of fashion are the prolific author of the curse. The love of dress and display, the desire to outshine our neighbors, the impulse to indulge in extravagant hospitality are like so many consuming fires that burn at full blast without any adequate reckoning of how long the the fuel is likely to hold out. Vanity Fair becomes a furnace in the flames of which good name and fortune ultimately perish like so much stubble.
 When man has achieved that stage of pros pelity where his wife and daughters first feel that they can ven ture to enter the gay circle of flash ionable society" he stands on the dan ger-line. If he has the courage to refuse to advance beyond it his safety is assured. But in the great majority of cases he lacks the courage. Conjugal and filial af- lection prompts him to acts of indul- gence and blinds him to the possible consequences of them. His first mis- take is to keep from his wife the fact that the purchase of a costly garment, or the removal into more showy resi- dence, or the qualification of her wish to ride in her own carriage, or any of the other numerous acts by which the fatal career is inaugurated, is an ex- pense which he can not afford. If he were but brave enough to say to her that this indulgence was beyond his means, and she were woman to ap- preciate his candor. he might be saved. But the reflection which generally con- trols him is, what a disappointment it would be to her if he declined to gratify her ambition. Most men who have suffered the consequences of this kind of reasoning will acknowledge, think, that their ini tial error was in emitting to take their wives into their confidence as to their business affairs. The woman is too proud or too trusting to solicit it. She would like to know exactly what her husbands $ resources are, but she will not seek a confidence he does not ask her to share. In most cases he as- sumes, therefore. that he knows what he is about, and her wants and tastes multiply in total ignorance of his meas ure of ability to meet them.
 In the family council, where the wife or daughters, emulous of their neigh bors' display, resolve to initiate that vanity, is planted,the upas destined to